In 2004, my summer vacation was spent in Southern Africa. The aim of the travel was a 14 day long safari trip to Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. I wanted to see the Jewel of the Kalahari, the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. The Okavango Delta is the world's largest inland maze of lagoons and channels, where the Okavango River, originating in Angola, spreads across an area of 16000 sq km before being absorbed by the Kalahari sand. The Okavango River is often described as "the river that never finds the sea", although newer research suggests that the water travels below the ground before emerging in the Limpopo River, the border river between Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, that drains into the Indian Ocean in Mozambique.

Chobe National Park, famous for its rich wildlife, was also a much-wanted destination. Botswana harbor almost 100000 elephants, and Chobe is probably one of the best places in Africa to view large herds of this strange animal.

The safari also offered a chance to see the Victoria Falls, where the mighty Zambezi River drops into a steep canyon, resulting in cascades of spray in the air. Vic Falls is 1,7 km wide and 108 meter high, and the volume of water in the wet season is about 10 millions of liters per second. David Livingstone, who later named the falls after the Queen of England, wrote, "On sights as beautiful as this, angels in their flights must have gazed".